Improvement in piano-actions



E. G. NEWMANl 8L P. AN DERSDN.

Piano-Actions.

Patented luly 1, 1873.

liee/zinns;

Maww( UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD G. NEWMAN AND PETER ANDERSON, OF NEW YORK, N.

IMPROVEMENT IN PIANO-ACTIONS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 140,428, dated lJuly 1,1873; application tiled April 24, 1873.

in Upright Piano-Fortes, of which the following is a specification:

The object of our invention is to produce a more durable, simple,compact, and effective action for upright piano-fortes than thoseheretofore in use 5 and it consists in an improved construction,combination, and arrangement of the various parts, whereby areeffectively regulated the contact and impact of the damper-head and thehammer with the string, the rebound ot' the hammer is checked, and thelifting-jack or fly is kept in position when required to operate thehammer, and thrown back when it is desired to separate the action fromthe key-board, all of which will be hereinafter fully described.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 represents in vertical section thekey-board and action complete for sounding one note. Fig. 2 is a detailvertical section, showing the attachment of one of the cheeks of theaction to the key-board. Fig. 3 is a section through ,w .r of Fig. l,seen from the front or in direction of the arrow.

Similar letters ot' reference indicate corresponding parts.

A is the key-frame of the pianoprovided at eitherendwith uprightsB,towhich areattached by screws the cheeks G of the act-ion, and held inplace on the key-frame A by stops a. The cheeks C are connected by railsD E, as usual. b is a lug for attaching the action to the restplank ofthe piano. F is one of the strings. On the upper side of the rail E ispivoted the damper-lever G, to which is attached by a setscrew thedamper-head H. c is the forte-lever for withdrawing the damper-head fromthe string to continue the sounding of the latter. On the lower partofthe rail E is pivoted the butt I of the ordinary hammer J, the shank dof which rests against the rail D when not in action. The butt I isprovided with a setscrew, c, acting against the lower end of thedamperdever Gr, and by which the pressure of the damper-head H on thestring F may be regulated when at rest, and released when the hammer Jis operated upon by depress ing the key L. The lower end of the butt Iwe provide with a curved elongation, f, to act against the backcheck K,which is attached to the key L, and thus to prevent the hammer fromrebounding when a note is sounded. The key L is attached to the keyboardM in the usual manner. gis a guidepin attached to the butt I and passingthrough a slot, h, in the upright portion N ot' the lifting-jack or lyO, to hold the latter in position to its work against the hammer-butt I.The upright portion N of the fly O is pivoted at t to the horizontalportion or bracket P, which is adjustable by two setscrews, j, passingthrough the same into the key L for raising or lowering the upper endofN to its proper point of contact with the butt I. k is a setscrewpassing through N, and which, by coming in contact with the puncheon lon the hammer-butt I at the exact instant when the hammer J has struckthe string F, will throw the end N of the iiy back, clear of the butt,and allow the hammer to fall back on the rail D, and the damper-head Hto be applied in proper time.

As seen in the drawing, the butt I is so con structed and the shank d soattached to the butt that the weight of the hammer is always outside thecenter or pivot of the butt on the side toward the rail D, so as alwaysto insure the proper falling back of the hammer onto the rail D, evenwhere the spring of the damperdever does not aid such motion, as is thecase in the treble or high notes, above the ftn octave, wheredamper-levers and heads are not used.

By the arrangement of securing the ily O directly to the key and theset-screw k tothe upper end of the ily N, and so that it will workdirectly on the punchcon l of the hammer-butt I, and by placing theback-check also on the key; and by operating the damperlever directly bythe butt I through the interA position of the set-screw e we gain theimportant advantage of requiring only three centers or pivotsfor theaction-viz, the pivots ofthe y, hammer-butt, and damper-lever; whereas,heretofore six or more centers have been needed, and the mechanismnecessarily been very complicated and far less durable than thispresent.

When the instrument is to be taken apart it is necessary in order toseparate the action from the keyboard, the former being irst lifted outvertically and the latter then drawn outhorizontally, to simultaneouslythrow back all the fly-arms N from contact with the guidepins g. This weaccomplish in the following manner: At either end of the keyboard M wesecure an upright, Q,provided with a bearing, m, and notches n a,suitable for the reception of the pivot o and shank or handle p ot' alever, R, somewhat similar to a bell-crank lever, the crank q of whichconnects with the crank at the other end by one common crank-pin or rod,i', continuous through the whole width of the action.

When the action and key-board are put together the shank p of the leverR is lodged in the upper notch a, and the rod r is in contact with they, allowing full play ot the latter; but when the shank p is moved downand lodged into the lower notch n the rod r ot' the lever R will throwback all the ily-arms N simultaneously out of contact with the guidepinsg on the butt I, as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. l, and thus allowof the action being lifted out and separated from the keyboard.

The complicated action of upright pianos, as heretofore constructed,renders it necessary to make the same detachable from the keyboard; butthe simplicity of this present action presents no hindrance topermanently uniting the two together, as is usual in the so-calledsquare pianos, it' preferred, in which case the lever R and uprights Qmay be dispensed with.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

l. The hammer-butt I provided with the elongated end f, acting against aback-check, K, placed on the key L, to check the rebound ofthe hammer J,constructed substantially as shown and described.

2. The set-screw e, in combination with the hammer-butt I anddamper-lever G, arranged to operate as specified.

3. The guide-pin g, in combination with the hammer-butt I, and with theslot It in the iiyarm N, as and for the purpose specified.

4. In combination with the slotted ly N, hammer-butt I, and guide-pin g,the lever 1t constructed and arranged to operate substantially asdescribed.

5. The arrangement shown, of the fly O directly on the key L, theset-screw k at the upper end of the ily-arm N, the hammer-butt I, itselongated end f, and the back-check K, with relation to each other,substantially as specified.

EDVARD G. NEWMAN. PETER ANDERSON.

Witnesses:

FREDRIK TEUK, ERNsr J oHANsEN.

